Christmas

So I know this took me a long time, but I have been messing around with Photoshop and let me tell you it is not the easiest thing in world to do. I downloaded the program onto my computer before Christmas time and have been perfecting some skills, by that I mean trying to enhance my pictures, getting mad because it won't work, and saving it for a later date. But, I kept coming back to my computer every so often and try to do some effects here and there. It's a good thing I am persistent (it's one of my favorite qualities)! So hear are some photos from Christmas this year and I have to say that my family had a wonderful time! Josh and I got to hang out with adults that we love, play games, have great conversations, and not to mention eat some darn good food. It was so fun to watch the kids. They are getting at that age where they also like to hang out. They really got along well this year.

Of coarse I took a ton of pictures, so I chose some of my favorites.

It was the year of funny Christmas hats. Joe and Missy bought this for Josh, but I thought it looked pretty cute on Wylie.

I am not sure what the kids are looking at, but I thought it was a good profile picture of Jack and Joey.

Grandma and her semi-annual teary eyed poem reading. Everyone makes her do it!

Grandad reading from the Bible.

Molly snuggling with her Daddy

Josh got to play quite a bit of pool.

I was hoping this picture would turn out bigger, but hopefully you can see Angie being dog piled by all the kids.

Gunnar was happy to get a Red Rider BB gun from his Mamaw and Papaw.

We were not lacking in the present department that is for sure!

A picture of the kids waiting at the top of the stairs Christmas morning.

A pretty picture of Wylie after playing in the snow.

A sweet picture of Jeff. I particularly like the snow on the side of his face which he received from the neighbor boy, who pelted him in the face with a snowball.

Gunnar Boy with quite the snowball.

Jillian and Wylie had to try some of the snow.

The Holidays

The kids made it through their Christmas program this year. Wylie was more than happy to wear her new fancy dress and pose for a picture. Her brother on the other hand thought that his clothes made him look like vomit. Gunnar just knew that none of the other boys would be dressed in such horrible clothes. Anyway, he survived the whole ordeal and I even managed to get him to pose for a few pictures...one that would be on this years Christmas card.

It's Been Awhile!!

So I have been a little busy lately! Between teaching, coaching, and the usual activities I have had no time to blog. Quite a bit has happened in the last 3 months. First of all, Wylie Jade turned 6 on September 14th. To celebrate she decided that she wanted to have her closest friends over for a sleepover, which I have provided a few pictures below of the event. I think she had a good time celebrating her birthday.

I finished coaching volleyball for the season, which we ended with a record of 5-2. Not too bad, although it should have been better. Josh is busy with concession stands, video taping football games, and has had quite a few conferences. Gunnar is plugging along with school. All of his progress reports have came back to us with straight A's. Josh and I are really proud of him for that, especially considering his lack of excitement for school. Gunnar refers to school as prison.

The kids had a good time trick or treating this year and at the local Neewollah Festival. Randi and Jillian came over for the festivities.

The kids and I drove over to my dad's to visit. We had a great time and I got some good pictures of the kids playing on the swings in the backyard. I got to play cards with my brother, Dad, and Cindy. And the next day we went to see Christmas Carol, which my sister Chris came to watch with us and eat lunch.

Wylie was so excited for her birthday, she couldn't wait to turn six.

She asked for a white cake with pink frosting and those sugar decorations that I have to say do not taste very good.

The sleepover group! I am pretty sure Josh and I lost some hearing due to all the screaming. Ha! Ha!

Wylie's BFF... Halle.

Wylie, Halle, and Reese have known each other since they were 2 years old because of daycare. They are now in kindergarten together, but they all have different teachers, which is probably a good thing.

Halloween night!

G.I. Joe, Black Cat, and Sorcerer. Gunnar obviously not wanting to get his picture taken.

The kids came back with lots of candy, although we had so many Trick-or-Treater's that we had to give some of their candy away! I know we had over 100 trick-or-treater's, but I am not sure the exact number. The lady who lives a block behind us had 180 kids show up at her door.

Miss Black Cat

Randi, Jillian, Wylie, and I waited in line for an hour again this year to get the girls' face painted.

I still think the wait was worth it.

Wylie picked the cat face to go with her costume for Trick-or-Treating.

I took this picture of Wylie at a pumpkin patch over by Pittsburgh. I wish I had more pictures from there, but my camera ran out of batteries like five minutes after I arrived.

My dad has a big backyard with a couple of swings that he made and a big tree that used to have a tree house in it. It was a perfect opportunity for some pictures...even good pictures of Gunnar.

I have to say Wylie is pretty easy to photograph...she is more than willing to pose for a picture.

Gunnar loves that swing!

Wylie prefers the swing with the good seat.

My favorite picture of the day. It's hard to get a good picture of the kids together.

First day of school!

Wylie finally started kindergarten last Monday. She has been so excited to start school. She told me the Sunday before the first day that her life was going to change forever. I have to say that was pretty dramatic of her, but she's right.

Last Swim.

So the summer has almost come to an end and that means covering the pool. Before school started we got in quite a bit of swimming and Wylie as usual improves her swimming skills and becomes a little more daring. Gunnar and Wylie had a great time playing together. They thought they were so funny by have Wylie get on Gunnar's shoulders.

I thought Wylie looked pretty cute in her goggles. She talks cute in them too!

I mentioned that she got more daring towards the end of the summer. Here she is doing a cannonball off the end of the slide.

Wylie also has become quite the diver!

Time to Blog.

We all made it through the first week of school, work, and volleyball practice unscathed. Both Gunnar and Wylie seem to be enjoying school and Josh hasn't mentioned much about his classes so I assume they are going well and my classes so far have been good.

So I have read online that you can make your blog into like a scrapbook, so I feel that these pictures that I took of our outing at the Independence Zoo were important to post. If you are a facebook reader you have probably already seen these, but I think they are worth posting again.